F1 testing in Spain

Hamilton, and Riccardo were the only ones near the top to set best time before lunch on softs, or so autosport says.

Only first day of testing at Barcelona, but we have got major news already. Lotus has a fundamental chassis issue and has withdrawn from the whole Barcelona testing this week! :eek:

Reminds me a bit of Williams from 2011, when they were shining in testing, but before the first race realized they had to fix a major design flaw - floor was too low, they needed to rise it, but as a result became slow...

And a deja vu to Lotus from 2011 - they were shining at the first tests before losing Kubica, now they were shining before losing chassis...

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Originally Posted by henners88

Very positive signs from McLaren and doubts from Vettel regarding grip and pace compared to rivals. We shall see if this is sandbagging or indeed the Red Bull dominance is finally over. The next few days will be interesting to watch. :)

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More sandbags in the RB camp than Boscastle in the wet season.......

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mr Alcatraz

Well stated Knockie! Alonso just put in a decent 10 lap stint. It's sometimes hard to judge his times becaus he always is trying to setup s1 when their is a little traffic! Plus Lotus hasn't run a lap in about an hour and fifteen minutes.

Alonso stint :

1:24.100 (15)
1:24.894 (16)
1:25.257 (17)
1:25.209 (18)
1:25.983 (19)
1:27.744 (20)
1:25.444 (21)
1:25.295 (22)
1:27.568 (23)

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Schumacher had a better stint than that. So don't count out Mercedes yet :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jens

Only first day of testing at Barcelona, but we have got major news already. Lotus has a fundamental chassis issue and has withdrawn from the whole Barcelona testing this week! :eek:

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Oh well. Better keep the ice cream freezer well stocked...........!

Just goes to show that what happens in the tunnel does not fully recreate what happens on the track.

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Originally Posted by Garry Walker

Schumacher had a better stint than that. So don't count out Mercedes yet :D

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Seriously I wouldn’t count them out. We know the least about them of all the teams. Ferrari didn't do anything except continue on with a regimented test. As for what I do know. Mercedes is in the same boat only earlier along with their data gathering. Today they had at least two issues, but it is to be expected.
1) They missed time early because of a hydraulic leak,
2) I don't think that burned bodywork is part of the livery

http://i.imgur.com/Uofqb.jpg

Excuse me for saying Ferrari had a decent stint :p :

Quote:

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Originally Posted by henners88

Very positive signs from McLaren and doubts from Vettel regarding grip and pace compared to rivals. We shall see if this is sandbagging or indeed the Red Bull dominance is finally over.

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If your interpretation is correct then someone needs to adjust their sand bags, because Red Bull have ended up faster than McLaren in every day of testing so far! :)

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Originally Posted by AndyL

If your interpretation is correct then someone needs to adjust their sand bags, because Red Bull have ended up faster than McLaren in every day of testing so far! :)

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Sebs 122.8 was on soft compound Autosport first said it was on mediums.

One question - who will be driving on Thursday and Friday? I haven't found it anywhere, although it mustn't be really that hard to find.

Vettel gets the best of Hamilton in the "dueling" race simulations:

Timing: 22 february, wednesday. Catalunya, Spain.